There are quite a few space battles, with the fate of all humanity in the balance at every turn. Holden continues to be an enigmatic character, hardly ever the smartest, but somehow he eventually makes the right decision at the right time, and he's also good at delegating authority. Shifting alliances propel most of the action in this book, with the crew of the Rocinante in the middle of most of it. Inaros has a history with one of the main characters, but I'm not giving any details about that. Several previously loyal to the Free Navy have broken away from their leader, Marco Inaros, when they realize he is a megalomaniac. Now it orbits the alien sphere just inside the ring portal near Uranus, controlled by the Belt's Free Navy. That station began as the Nauvoo, intended to be the first generational starship, but was then commandeered by Fred Johnson as an OPA gunship and renamed the Behemoth. A revolutionary cabal of Belters has taken control of Medina Station and is blocking emigration through the portals. Many on Mars were demoralized that their terra-forming project had been a waste of time and resources, now that the alien portals led to many new worlds on which humanity might be able to survive on the surface as is. Other corporations were only concerned with their profits in manufacturing and shipping in the Belt. Some in the Earth government (and the military) were allied with Protagen, the company set up to study and capitalize on the proto-molecule, with no regard for the dangers. This relates to the personal level of today's identity politics, where marginalized peoples resent other groups telling them what they should think and how they should act.Īll of the major players have different factions vying for control. The same applies to James Holden, no matter how much he has helped their cause. Fred Johnson has been a leading figure in at least one branch of the OPA, yet he is from Earth, so many in the Belt consider him an interloper with divided loyalties. The Belt wants self-determination, and is resentful of the continued influence of Earth in directing its future. As we have seen in the real world, some of them have been successful in establishing democracies, while others have been controlled by the strongest warlord. The Belt represents the colonies that threw off the yoke of imperialist countries in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Mars is similar to the United States, a grand new vision for cooperation toward a common goal, in this case terra-forming and self-sufficiency. Earth was responsible for most of the development of the Belt and beyond, and they're anxious to maintain control. Earth stands in for the old guard of first world nations Great Britain, France, Spain, etc. There has been a lot of political and social commentary that can be viewed as parallels to both historical and current events, on the global and national levels, as well as the personal. UPDATE: The Expanse was awarded a 2020 Hugo for Best Series at CoNZealand. What follows will be more a generic interpretation of the significant themes explored throughout the series. I did my best to limit that for the previous book, and I have to be very careful here too. Some of my previous comments may have contained more spoilers than I would have liked, but this series is complex, following a wide range of characters and their actions in many different locations, with a lot of the events carrying over to subsequent volumes. If you're new to this series, please refer to this page for my thoughts on the first five novels (+ five shorter stories). The original page for the book series was getting very long, and since there are at least three more novels planned to follow Babylon's Ashes, I thought it best to start a new page. A purchase through our links may earn us a commission. Novellas: Strange Dogs / Auberon / The Sins of Our Fathers | īuy Babylon's Ashes from Bookshop or Amazon. Novels: Babylon's Ashes / Persepolis Rising / Tiamat's Wrath / Leviathan Falls Posted December 9, 2016, with multiple edits & addenda
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